Here Comes The Sun
by newrules
Summary: When Auralee Oswin joined The Resistance, she came into contact with several things: brand new tools for her to tinker around with, her very own work area, and even General Organa herself. But somehow, a charismatic pilot turns out to be the best of them all.
1. Now or Never

_Chapter One - Now or Never_

* * *

 **6 YEARS BBSB (Before Battle of Starkiller Base)**

Auralee was nervous.

Her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty and she felt like she might lose the breakfast she had eaten that morning at any second. She prayed she wouldn't. Throwing up all over General Organa's shoes probably wasn't the best way to make a good first impression.

"Auralee, calm down," said the older figure next to her as if she could sense the girl's nerves. "The General is a very nice woman - there's no need to be nervous."

"That's easy for you to say. You've been in the Resistance for years now, Zella. You're used to it," replied Auralee, making her way through through the halls with shaking legs. "But me? This is my first day." She sighed. "What if you're wrong and General Organa doesn't want me here? I don't want to go back to Tiisheraan. There's nothing for me there."

"You won't be going back," Zella answered simply. "Your skills are needed here. General Organa knows that."

A beep came from next to their legs and Auralee managed a small laugh as she glanced down at her purple and white droid. (That was made with her own two hands, no less.) "Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it."

CI-4 trilled happily in response at her appreciation and zoomed forward as the distance between the trio and their destination slowly closed. Auralee felt her heart begin to quicken its pace once again.

"Go ahead," said the tall guard outside the door as they approached. "The General is just wrapping up another meeting. She should be finished in a few minutes."

Auralee nodded briefly in acknowledgement and turned to look at Zella, her hand resting on the handle of the door. "Now or never?"

"Now or never," Zella repeated. "I'll wait here for you."

Sucking in a deep breath, the budding engineer pushed open the door and was met by the sight of General Leia Organa herself. Instead of being rude and interrupting the conversation that was still ongoing, Auralee and her droid chose to stand back and wait instead.

The General's hair was wrapped up in a neat crown braid and under the dim lights, the younger girl could see the shines of grey showing through her usual brown colour. She wore a brown vest over her light green coveralls that were tucked into a pair of brown boots and her face was attentive as she listened to the other resident in the room speak. Auralee and CI-4 watched closely.

"Congratulations, Commander," the General smiled and held out her hand. "You've earned it."

"Thank you, General." The man grinned, just as Auralee took a small step back to lean against a desk and accidentally knocked a pen off to the floor. Swearing under her breath, she bent to pick it up and place it back on the desk quickly, praying that somehow, the others hadn't noticed.

No such luck.

Hands still clasped in a celebratory handshake - though why they were celebrating, Auralee was unsure - the pair turned towards the noise. Even CI-4 looked at her with a hint of embarrassment. The man - the _Commander -_ rose his eyebrows in surprise while General Organa let a smile spread across her lips.

"Auralee Oswin, I presume?" She said turning from the Commander and facing the blushing girl instead.

"Uh, yes, General," Auralee nodded. _Good job, genius,_ she told herself. _Now their first impression of you is that you're clumsy... which wouldn't be inaccurate._ "Zella Retriga just brought me here."

"Zella spoke very highly of you," General Organa noted. "Just twenty one years old and you're already capable of making droids... Imagine what you'll be able to do in the future."

"Actually, I made CI-4 when I was nineteen," Auralee corrected before wincing slightly. "Not that I'm bragging or anything -"

"And this is him, I'm guessing?" The man smirked, cutting her off - Auralee thanked him inwardly - and gesturing towards her beloved droid. "Hey, buddy."

CI-4 beeped in greeting and General Organa smiled.

"I suppose I should introduce you two while we're at it," she continued. "Commander Dameron, this is our newest recruit - Auralee Oswin."

"Wait," Auralee said. "So you're definitely taking me?"

"Of course," the General said with a hint of confusion as to why she would ask such a question. The answer was obvious, after all. "The Resistance welcomes all, especially those with your type of skills."

Auralee grinned in relief. "Thank you, General Organa."

"It's my pleasure," she answered. "Now, if you two -" She was cut off by an indignant beep. "Forgive me - _three_ will excuse me, I have to check on something with Admiral Ackbar. I'll check in on you soon, Auralee, just to see how you're doing." And with that, she took her leave.

Once the door had closed behind her, CI-4 let out a series of unhappy noises at being left out initially. Auralee sighed.

"Don't worry, Cipher, she didn't mean to leave you out. You're just small, that's all. She probably forgot you were even here because you were so well behaved." CI-4 stopped and looked up at Auralee, thinking over her words. Deciding he was happy with the girl's obvious compliments, he chirped.

Commander Dameron let out a laugh at the pair's interaction. "You two seem to have a good relationship."

"After I worked on him for the better half of a year, he has no choice but to like me now," Auralee replied jokingly.

"The full name's Poe. Poe Dameron." Despite General Organa introducing them briefly before, he held out his hand and Auralee placed her own in his, giving it a firm shake.

"Pleasure to meet you, Poe, Poe Dameron," she replied with a grin. "I'm Auralee. Auralee Oswin."

Poe rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Are you always this sarcastic?"

"It's one of my better traits," she quipped back. "If you don't mind me asking, what were you and the General celebrating when I, you know... announced my arrival?"

"You mean when you knocked that pen off the desk and looked like you wanted the ground to swallow you up?" Auralee rolled her eyes, giving a resigned nod as Poe grinned. "I've just been promoted to Commander of the Blue and Red squadrons."

"You're a pilot," Auralee said, impressed.

"You seem surprised."

"Not at all," she replied, finally taking a moment to truly _see_ the man in front of her. A square chin with a jawline she was pretty sure could chisel granite, soft chocolate-brown eyes that had a warmth to them that reminded her of a fire crackling, full lips with the top looking just slightly puffier than the bottom and a tall build that gave him quite a few inches on Auralee, while simultaneously making him appear confident even when at ease. Yeah, she could see him being a pilot.

"Well, that's good then," Poe chuckled and Auralee found herself wondering whether or not she had said that last sentence out loud. She glanced down at CI-4 in questioning and he gave a few beeps that told her _yep, you said it._ "I should probably head out now," Poe continued. "Gotta run some drills with the rest of the squadron."

"Of course," nodded Auralee. "Have fun out there, Commander. And congratulations on your new position."

"Thanks Oswin." He answered politely as he made his way towards the door. Just before he left, however, he turned back to the pair still in the room. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you and your droid again very soon."

And with a wink, he left.

* * *

 **A/N: Gah, first chapters are always the hardest. Hence the short length and the overall blehness of it all. The fact that I haven't written anything in over 6 months doesn't help either. Nevertheless, here it is! The first chapter to Here Comes The Sun. (It will get better, don't worry.)**


	2. Do You Want To Build A Droid?

**5 YEARS, 11 MONTHS BBSB**

Auralee didn't come into contact with Poe again until a few weeks later.

She had been fiddling around with a blaster she'd been attempting to fix for the past couple of hours or so when he poked his head in the doorway of her work area. His eyes scanned quickly through the room, glancing briefly at the various tools scattered around the desk and then finally landing on the engineer at work.

CI-4 noticed him first. The droid's head swiveled around as it felt another presence in the room and quickly emitted a series of beeps that said he was pleased to see the pilot.

Hearing her droid, Auralee dropped the screwdriver she was using in surprise and lifted her head up. "Cipher, what are you -" Her eyes fell on Poe. "Oh! Commander Dameron," she stated, quickly standing up and giving him a small smile. "I'm sorry, I didn't even realise you were here. You weren't standing there long, were you?"

"Not at all," Poe smiled at her actions. "And it's Poe, by the way. You don't have to call me Commander."

"Poe," she repeated. "Got it." A somewhat awkward silence fell between the two and so Auralee abruptly turned back to her desk and began to tidy up her tools. She didn't really have to, of course - she was going to be continuing her work once Poe left - but she felt she needed to do something to keep her thoughts on track. "So, what brings you to my controlled mess of a room?"

Poe chuckled. "I'm here for your expertise."

"Oh, really?" Auralee asked, turning her head to glance at the pilot and tucking a stray piece of her dull brown hair behind her ear. "What do you need?"

"I'd like you to build another a droid." He explained.

CI-4 beeped, disgruntled.

"Not to replace you, Cipher," Poe smiled down at the droid. "It'll be for me. For my Starfighter."

"You speak Binary?" Auralee questioned, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

"It's one of my better traits," Poe said - mimicking her words from their previous conversation - and Auralee felt her cheeks heat up.

"And you have a good memory," she continued, nodding to herself. "Good to know."

"I'm a man of many talents." Folding his arms across his chest, Poe walked further into the room and leaned himself back to rest against the wall. "So, what do you say? Can you build me a droid?"

"Don't all you pilots already have one?" Auralee asked, "what happened to yours?"

"I never had my very own," he replied with a shrug. "Plus none of them really worked out." Poe moved in closer and lowered his voice as if he were going to reveal some top secret information. "That K3 unit has a serious attitude problem."

Auralee snorted. "Let me guess. It kept telling you that it could do a better job at flying than you could."

Poe's brows came together in surprise. "How did you know that?"

"I had to fix its arm a couple of days ago. It complained the entire time and said it was better off fixing it itself," she explained with a frown. "Damn ungrateful robot."

The pilot shook his head in despair before glancing doing at CI-4 who had moved closer to the pair. "You'd never be that audacious, would you, Cipher?" The droid beeped in refutation and shook his domed head from side to side. At his response, Poe looked back at the engineer in front of him with a hopeful look in his eyes.

Auralee stared back for a moment before her resolve crumbled and she let out a sigh. "Fine." Poe's face lit up with a grin. "But it won't be easy!" She continued, pointing a finger at the man. Poe tried his best to wipe the smile off his face and keep his expression neutral at her words. He wasn't doing very well. "It took me months to build Cipher."

"That's fine," he accepted, placing a hand on her right shoulder in thanks. "Take all the time you need."

"And I'll need some details first." She continued, reluctantly turning away and opening the top drawer of her desk. Using her hands to rummage around inside - Poe raised his eyebrows at the number of items packed into such a small space - Auralee managed to find a pad of paper and a sharp pencil.

"Take a seat," she instructed, gesturing to the seat she had abandoned when Poe had come into the room.

"No, you take it. You've been working hard," Poe answered with a shake of his head. He still chose to join Auralee at the desk, however, he chose to sit himself on top of its surface instead. "I'm happy here."

Rolling her eyes graciously at his gentlemanliness, Auralee plopped herself down on the chair and leaned back, finding relief in the support it gave her. She had been leaning over that damn blaster since she had woken up and her back was beginning to cramp up.

"So," she began, quickly scrawling the words 'POE'S DROID' on the top of the page and underlining it twice. "Is there anything specific the droid should be or have?"

"Well, it'd have to fit in my Starfighter so I guess it'd have to be a suitable size," Poe said and watched as Auralee took note. "One without an attitude would be great," he added, referring to the K3 unit once again. Auralee figured that that was a fair request and scribbled it down too.

"Any specific colour?" She asked.

Her companion paused in thought before shaking his head. "I don't think so. I trust your judgement."

Auralee - appreciating him having faith in her to build something that was good enough - began to drag her pencil across the page in a series of circles and twists. "I think a BB unit would be best for you," she mumbled, teeth sinking into her bottom lip as she worked. It was a rough sketch, and the final product would probably only _slightly_ resemble it, but it would have to do for now. Holding out the pad to Poe, the engineer waited as he took it in his hand and glanced down at the drawing.

"A BB unit?" He repeated with a questioning tone.

Auralee gave a short nod. "Yep. It's a good model. And it should be small enough to fit in the droid socket of your spacecraft." She stopped. "Well, I'm assuming. I'd probably have to come and check it out first."

"You wanna check out my fighter?" Poe asked, setting the paper next to him and looking at her once again.

"If we mere nerfherders are worthy enough, Commander," Auralee jested with a slight quirk of her eyebrow.

The pilot smirked and stood up from the desk. "I'll have to see if I can fit you into my _very_ busy schedule first."

"I await with baited breath," the girl answered with a lazy grin, her eyes following his figure as he made his way to the exit.

Poe's smirk turned into a genuine smile. "Thank you for doing this. I know you're already pretty busy with, well..." He waved his hand in the general direction of Auralee's 'to-do' pile which included yet another blaster and a pilot helmet.

"Don't worry about it. It's what I'm here for." Auralee shrugged. "Now get outta here, Commander. I've got a droid to build."


	3. We Didn't Start The Fire

_Chapter Three - We Didn't Start The Fire_

* * *

 **5 YEARS, 10 MONTHS BBSB**

"'Ehh' is not an acceptable answer." Poe said adamantly.

"Yes it is!"

"Not when my question was _'Is this going to explode?'_ "

"Technicalities." Auralee shrugged from her crouched position on the ground and continued to make some tweaks here and there. Around a half hour ago, Poe had knocked on her door on behalf of a member of his squadron and asked her to take a look at one of the X-Wing engines. Apparently on their last recon mission, Sivan noticed something wrong with his ship and after looking closer, realised he could smell a strange burning coming from the engine. Flying back as soon - and as quickly - as possible, Poe immediately came to Auralee's quarters to ask for her assistance.

And so, there they were; an engineer and a pilot staring down at a pile of smoking metal and other miscellaneous components that were already beginning to smoke on the grass outside. Auralee knew that it was most likely unsalvageable, but she didn't want to give up right away.

"This damn thing," she mumbled to herself as a bead of sweat made it's way down her forehead from all the work.

"Listen, Aura, maybe we should leave it," Poe leaned over and put a hand on Auralee's arm. "It's not safe."

At his touch, Auralee turned her head and let her gaze fall onto his face. Poe shuffled uneasily. "What?"

"You called me Aura," she stated, the beginnings of a smug smile beginning to show on her lips. "You've never done that before."

The pilot rolled his eyes playfully. "Yeah, so? I like it. Don't you?"

Auralee nodded. "It's nice."

"You know what's not nice?" Poe asked with a raise of his brow. " _That_."

Following his pointed finger, Auralee jumped back as a flame burst out of the metal hunk of junk she was attempting (also known as 'failing') to fix and stumbled into Poe's legs.

"Holy shit!"

Instantly, Poe bent down to grab Auralee by her upper arms and pull her into a standing position and away from the flames.

"It's only a little bit on fire," Auralee said from her position behind Poe who had an arm out in front of her to stop her from getting any closer to the burning engine. "Maybe we could still use it?" One look from Poe stopped her from continuing.

"Stay back," he said and stripped off his jacket.

"What are you doing?" asked Auralee as she watched Poe inch closer to the blaze.

Poe lifted one shoulder in a shrugging motion. "Gotta stop this somehow." Without another word, Poe quickly threw his jacket on top of the engine to smother the fire and the pair watched anxiously as the flames slowly petered out.

They were safe.

For about 10 seconds.

"Commander?" called a voice that pulled both Poe and Auralee away from the mess they had accidentally created. "What's going on here?"

"Uh, everything is fine, General," Poe said quickly, stepping in front of the engine in a lame attempt to hide it from his superior. "Just a slight problem with one of the X-Wing engines."

"What kind of problem?"

"I may have set the engine on fire?" Auralee supplied with a slight wince. "I mean, I didn't. Totally. I promise... But hypothetically, that's a thing you should probably be aware of."

A ghost of a smile showed on General Organa's face. "You call a fire a 'slight problem', Commander?"

Laughing nervously, Poe reached up to scratch the back of his neck. "See, when we were out on our mission earlier, Sivan thought his engine smelled kinda funny so I asked Auralee to take a look at it when we got back... Turns out it's kind of beyond repair."

"I noticed," General Organa said with a nod towards the still smoking pile behind the pilot. "3PO, do you mind?"

"Not at all, mistress," C3PO - who Auralee hadn't even noticed at first since he had been surprisingly quiet - said, making his way to the engine. "Excuse me, Commander Dameron?" Poe turned to face the droid. "Would you mind removing your jacket, please?"

Nodding in realisation, Poe grabbed his jacket from the wreckage. Surprisingly, it wasn't _too_ badly damaged. It had a burn mark under one arm, a slight hole in a place or two but overall, it could've been worse.

As C3PO got to work on removing what used to be part of Sivan's ship, General Organa spoke. "Maybe you two should be getting out of here. We'll get a new engine soon."

"Thank you, General," Poe said just as Auralee mumbled "Sorry, General."

With a small nod of his head, Poe led the way as he and Auralee both quickly made their exit.

General Organa watched the pair leave with a small smile and a shake of her head.

"Kids."

Once Auralee and Poe had passed the threshold of the Resistance base, the duo began to laugh.

"Did that really just happen?" Poe asked with a grin. "Did we really just cause a fire and then get away with it?"

"General Organa is a very nice lady," Auralee replied honestly. "I think we definitely owe her one now."

"I'd say you owed me one, too."

"What?" Auralee asked with a small frown. "Why?"

"Look at my poor jacket!" Poe held up his pilot jacket for Auralee to see. "What did it ever do to you?"

"I could get Zella to fix that for you," Auralee offered. "Though it _was_ kind of yourown fault."

Poe smirked. "Would you rather I left you there to catch fire?"

"I'm not saying that it wasn't heroic, Commander," she joked. "I'm just saying that you _willingly_ damaged that jacket."

Poe paused in thought before pulling the jacket back on anyway. "How about we go grab Cipher and get some food instead of arguing?" Without waiting for an answer, Poe continued walking to Auralee's room.

His companion grinned as she quickened her pace to catch up with him. "You're just changing the subject because you know I'm right."

He scoffed. "I am not."

"Are too."

CI-4 had been glad when Auralee and Poe had come to get him back from where he was left in his owner's room. When Poe had asked Auralee for help she had told CI-4 to wait behind as she wouldn't be gone for long. Looking back on it CI-4 should've known that wouldn't be true.

But now, everything was fine, and he was sitting happily with Auralee and her friend Poe as they grabbed some food from the cafeteria and sat down at a table with their trays full of food that looked rather questionable in the eyes of the droid.

"Do you really need all of that?" Auralee questioned with her eyebrows raised in reference to the food on Poe's plate.

"Do you really need to ask?" He grinned as he shovelled a piece of panna cake into his mouth.

The engineer snorted in laughter before taking a tentative bite of her fried crispic. Poe smiled at her.

"So, tell me," he said after swallowing his mouthful of food. "Is that how all of your jobs go? Because if so, maybe I should ask someone else to make that droid for me. I'd hate for it to catch fire, after all."

Auralee rolled her eyes. "That was a one off, I swear. I learned to do what I do from my dad and he was pretty damn good at his job."

"He must have been if even General Organa was impressed by what you can do." Poe commented as he continued to eat. "Where is your dad? Back on your home planet?"

Auralee shook her head. "He died when I was fifteen. I kind of raised myself from that point on, along with some occasional help from Zella. She was my neighbour for years."

"Damn it." Poe let his fork fall onto his plate. "I'm sorry, Aura, I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't," Auralee replied casually, moving on to her second piece of crispic. "It's okay. I've had a long time to deal with it."

"What about your mom?" Poe queried.

"She passed away when I was a kid - maybe around three?" she guessed. "I don't remember much about her."

"The people here; they'll become your new family," Poe stated kindly. "That's what happened with me."

"With you?" Auralee asked.

Poe nodded. "My mom died when I was eight. She was the one who taught me to fly."

"How about your dad?"

"I never saw much of him," he explained. "His job kept him pretty busy."

"Well, if it helps," Auralee began with a small smile. "I'm glad to be part of this new family."

Poe chuckled softly. "Yeah, I'm glad you are, too."

CI-4 beeped questioningly.

"Yes, Cipher, you're a part of the family, too." Poe answered.

"And once your droid is finished, it can join us." Auralee added. "Though, that may be a while."

"Oh, yeah, how's it going with that?" Poe continued to eat his panna cake as the conversation moved on. "Made any progress?"

"No, not really." Auralee sighed. "So far, your droid is just a circuit board. I was actually hoping to make some more progress today but then this pilot guy - you've probably never heard of him - asked me to take a look at some engine and well..." she shrugged. "How could I deny him my help?"

Her words caught Poe off guard and he laughed through his mouthful of food. "Damn that pilot," he said. "I hope he at least thanked you for your services."

"You know what? He didn't," Auralee acted flabbergasted. "Instead he just blamed me for the fire that ensued," she scoffed. "The _nerve._ "

"I cannot believe he would do that," Poe said, feigning anger. "Next time you see him, let me know. I'll give him a piece of my mind."

"I think I can handle him myself," she replied. "But if all else fails, I'll be sure to come to you." CI-4 turned its head to look at Auralee.

"Well, I'll come to Cipher and _then_ you." She corrected.

"The droid comes first?" Poe thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that seems fair. Speaking of, I thought of something I'd like you to do with my droid. If you can."

Auralee gestured for him to continue as she finished the last of her meal.

"I don't want it to call me 'master'. I know that's kind of a thing that all droids do but I don't want that. Our relationship should be based on mutual respect, not obligation."

Auralee smiled.

"I can do that," she agreed. "Cipher here doesn't call me 'mistress', do you, buddy?" _No, ma'am,_ the droid beeped which made Auralee roll her eyes. "And he's never called me ma'am in his life until now."

"I think he's just trying to make you look bad." Grinned Poe.

"He's lucky I love him." With a pointed glance at CI-4, Auralee stood up and grabbed her tray, throwing any remnants of her meal in the trash can and placing the tray with the rest of the dirty dishes. Poe followed suit with CI-4 at his feet.

"What are your plans for the rest of the day, then?" Poe asked.

The girl shrugged as the trio left the cafeteria together. "I still have to fix the screen of a datapad and then I'll probably keep working on your BB unit."

"Mind if I join?" Poe offered.

"Sure. Why not?"


End file.
